All horse slaughter closed down in Mexico and Canada today

Being a horseperson from Europe I can explain how the passport works, or is supposed to work there. All horses born from 2008 on have to be microchipped, older horses who will be sold, also. The passport has been around for much longer. As owner or buyer of a horse you'll have to declare the horse for human consumption or not for human consumption. If you declare for human consumption EVERY medical treatment must be recorded in the passport by a vet. And is restricted to drugs who leave no residue. So most owners declare non human consumption to have all treatment options.
Having lived in Italy I've seen many many racehorses going off to slaughter, straight off the track, regardless of what the passport says. There are killbuyers who have tons of passports who fit just about any horse out there. Apparently chip controls are rather rare at slaughter facilities.

I wouldn't have my horse sent off to slaughter, but I see the need for slaughter facilities.
As long as there is a greater supply than demand, they unwanted ones have to go somewhere.
The demand for horsemeat is there, Italy even breeds for slaughter.

I remember small butchershops in Germany for horses only, and the butcher would either let the owner hold the horse for the shot or hand him the halter right after the kill. Some of them even would come out to the owners place with a trailer, load the horse, shoot it, bleed it and take it away. Least stress and one can be sure the horse doesn't go on a long grueling trip to eventual death.

Deserthorsewoman, you are right on all bt one point.
You do not have to declaire whether your horse is for human consumption or not untill it has drugs that make it unable to enter the food chain. A vet cannot administer any drugs untill they have seen/signed the passport.
One cannot travel, compete or sell any horse without a passport.

Natisha, in the UK we very easily know what animals have been given. We have far stricter control of medications and who can administer them, we have passports and microchips without which a horse cannot be traveled, competed or sold.
Even cattle over here is passport controlled and doesnt get anywhere near the same amount of crap put in thier system as they do over in the US (hence why you cannot by american beef in the EU)

Faye, maybe it's different in the UK, in Italy you have to declare once you want anything, like the Coggins, entered by the state vet office in the passport and they won't sign anything until the declaration is done. They even threaten to confiscate your horse. Every barnowner has to report how many horses are boarded. But being Italy, they have more ways to go around and crooked than they have laws ....which I don't mean in the bad way....Italians can be pretty ingenious

We don't have to worry about coggins here in the UK.

Wow, that is a much better way to do it. On this side of the pond it is more of a production line.
The horses may not know of death as we know it but they sure know something bad is about to happen as they are hustled through chutes, smell blood, hear screams & panic on their way to the kill box. This after they've traveled under less than ideal conditions.
Plenty of YouTube videos to verify this.

I also saw something rather nice, if anything which has to do with death can be considered nice, in Italy. If a horse is euthanized, it can't be buried. A truck picks it up to be cremated. I asked one if the truckdrivers what the process is. Its a small truck, with sort of a trunk, horse size. Carcass is being pulled in, taken to their facility, stored in a fridge chamber and then taken to cremation. The energy produced by burning is being used in a plastic bucket factory.
Trucks are disinfected and cleaned after every transport. No smell, no dirt, nothing. And a degree of dignity too.
Now if somebody would do something like that here in the US, offer cremation for free and use the energy in one way mir another, that might help horseowners out when faced with that decision. Paying for or providing transport to the facility is if course necessary.
Btw, that service is not free in Italy, rather costly with about 500$

I'd hate to be the guy who had to tell a rancher to get passports for all his horses...

Europe bans US beef as well. Maybe it is time for folks to look at horse meat markets elsewhere.

My dad just told me the BEST plan! Take the horsemeat slaughtered here in the US, and ship it to Africa and other countries where children starve to death on a daily basis because we are getting tired of watching those depressing commercials! And it'll take extra horses off America's hands haha

I'll bet those poor starving people hate having to be in those commercals. How someone can joke about their plight is beyond me.

Bsms, we don't take the beef because it contains to much crap in the form of antibiotics. Overhere the only difference between organic beef and everday cheap beef is that Organic hasnt been on land which has been fertilised with chemical fetilisers, nor has is been fed any feeds that may have been fertilised with chemicals.

Before slaughter here the animal cannot have had any drugs for 3 months and non of the prohibited drugs EVER.

Oh and why would passports be an issue for a rancher? Farmers with over 1000 head of sheep will have a passport for each and every one of them, same with cattle, Every horse in Europe should have one as well.

Oh and can I just point out that the EU as a body does not OWN the plants! They are mearly inspected by the EU regulatory authority to ensure that all the procedures are adequate to ensure the safety of our food chain. What they will have done is enforce a closure notice which means that the plant cannot supply to the EU, if this is the only market they supply to then of course the plant will close. If the plant decides it is not going to supply the EU but will supply elsewhere then there is nothing the EU reg body can do.
However the EU has mutual recognition agreements with most other major markets, which means that the other markets will acknowlege the fact that the meat is no loner concidered fit for the EU and most of them won't take it either.